Free Sapphique - Incarceron 02 by Catherine Fisher Page A

man! The way that Sapphique took lies through the Door of Death. I will take this girl through that door. And I will bring her back!'
    She didn't have to pretend. Her heart was thudding hard.
    There was no roar from the crowd, but the silence was different now. It had become a threat, a force of such desire it scared her. As Rix led her to the couch she glanced out at the muffled faces and knew that this was no audience happy to be fooled. They wanted Escape like a starving man craves food. Rix was playing with fire here.
    'Pull out,' she breathed.
    'Can't.' His lips barely moved. 'Show must go on.'
    Faces pressed forward to see. Someone fell, and was trampled. A soft ice-thaw dripped from the roof, on Rix's make-up, on her hands gripping the couch, on the black glove. The crowd's breath was a frosted contagion.
    'Death,' he said. 'We fear it. We would do anything to avoid it. And yet Death is a doorway that opens both ways. Before your eyes, you will see the dead live!'
    He drew the sword out of the air. It was real. It gleamed with ice as he held it up.
    This time there was no rumble, no lightning from the roof. Maybe Incarceron had seen the act too often. The crowd stared at the steel blade greedily. In the front row a man scratched endlessly, muttering under his breath.
    Rix turned. He fastened the links around Attia's hands. 'We may have to leave fast. Be ready.'
    The loops went round her neck and waist. They were false, she realized, and was glad.
    He turned to the crowd and held up the sword. 'Behold! I will release her. And I will bring her back!'
    He'd switched it. It was fake too. She only had seconds to notice, before he plunged it into her heart.
    This time there was no vision of Outside.
    She lay rigid, unbreathing, feeling the blade retract, the cold damp of fake blood spread on her skin.
    Rix was facing the Silent mob; now he turned, she sensed him come near, his warmth bending over her.
    He tugged the sword away. 'Now,' he breathed.
    She opened her eyes. She felt unsteady, but not like the first time. As he helped her stand and the blood shrivelled miraculously on her coat she felt a strange release; she took his hand and was shown to the crowd and she bowed and smiled in relief, forgetting for a moment that she was not supposed to be part of the act.
    Rix bowed too, but quickly. And as her euphoria drained away, she saw why.
    No one was applauding.
    Hundreds of eyes were fixed on Rix. As if they waited for more.
    Even he was thrown. He bowed again, lifted the black glove, stepped backwards on the creaking boards of the stage.
    The crowd was agitated; someone shouted. A man shoved himself forward, a thin gangly man muffled up to the eyes; he tore himself out from the crowd and they saw he held one end of a thick chain. And a knife.
    Rix swore briefly; out of the corner of her eye Attia saw the seven jugglers scurrying for weapons backstage.
    The man climbed up on the boards. 'So Sapphique's Glove brings men back to life.'
    Rix drew himself up. 'Sir, I assure you...'
    'Then prove it again. Because we need it.' He hauled on the chain, and a slave fell forward on to the boards, an iron collar aro und his neck, his skin raw with hideous sores. Whatever the disease was, it looked terrible. 'Can you bring him back? I've already lost...' 'He's not dead,' Rix said.
    The slaveowner shrugged. Then quickly, before anyone could move, he cut the man's throat. 'He is now.'
    Attia gasped; her hands over her mouth.
    The red slash overflowed; the slave fell choking and writhing. All the crowd murmured. Rix did not move. For a moment Attia had the sense he was frozen with horror, but when he spoke his voice had not a tremor. 'Put him on the couch.'
    'I'm not touching him. You touch him. You bring him back.'
    The people were shouting. Now they were crying out and crawling up the sides of the stage, all around, closing in. 'I've lost my children,' one cried. 'My son is dead,' another screamed. Attia looked round, backing away, but